5 Nuns Who Could Kick Your Ass

#2. Catalina de Erauso

When Catalina de Erauso was 15 and in pre-nun mode, she ran away from the convent where she was raised. It was the first time she had ever seen a street. It goes without saying that like most sheltered kids, the first taste of freedom made her crazy.

She changed her name, dressed in drag and, according to her autobiography, she "hustled, killed, maimed, and wreaked havoc."

After the thug life got old, de Erauso joined the Peruvian army, as a dude. This was all well and good, until she was severely wounded in battle. A priest came to give her last rites and it became that big reveal scene from every transgender comedy ever.

"Nothing to see here, sinner!"

She survived her wounds, though (Medic: "The enemy has a weapon that grows boobies on our men!") and with severely limited options for an alternate career, she went back to the Church and finally became a nun.

It's just that regular nun pictures are so boring.

The Pope even gave her special permission to wear men's clothing, which sounds very progressive until you consider how the Pope dresses.

The shoes. Look at them.

#1. Theodosia of Constantinople

Theodosia was, you guessed it, a nun. She was from a wealthy family and used some of her inheritance to commission big, elaborate icons for the Church. The most famous was the one of Jesus that hung over the main gate of the palace. Seems like the sort of thing a nun would do.

Emperor Leo III, however, was not a fan of the fancy Christ. When he became emperor, he ordered that all religious images be destroyed because worshiping icons was wrong. It seems like destroying pictures of Jesus would also be wrong, but we're not experts.

Anyway, an imperial guardsman arrived with his ladder, and climbed up to take the icon down while Theodosia and a few fellow nuns stood close by. The sisters simply waited until he reached the top rung, then yanked the ladder away, causing the man to tumble to his gruesome death on the pavement below.

The guard's superior was nearby. The nuns picked up stones and bashed his brains in.

Upon hearing the news, Emperor Leo suppressed a smirk at the murder's Three Stooges-like nature and ordered the nuns to be decapitated. Theodosia suffered a more bizarre and gruesome punishment: she was stabbed in the throat with a ram's horn. Again, it seems like owning a picture of Jesus is less sacrilegious than stabbing a nun in the neck with a horn, but again we defer to his judgment.

See? That's something everyone can enjoy.

Theodosia came out on top, though, since she became Saint Theodosia, which means she can perform miracles. And she can summon a ram whenever she wants to poke at Leo III... in Hell.